Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/553

 the patent was drawn upon its authority, the fact that it was based upon head rights which had been transferred was carefully stated in its text. The certificate having been secured, whether it remained in the hands of the person who had obtained it from the clerk or had come into the possession of a purchaser, it had to be entered in the office of the Secretary of the Colony. In theory, the accuracy of the list of persons, represented in this certificate to have been transported to Virginia, was inquired into by the clerks in that office, and if the list was shown to be correct, the document was filed as a part of the permanent records of the Secretary. A second certificate was now issued which directed the surveyor of the county in which the person seeking the patent desired to have lands assigned to him, to lay off the prescribed number of acres.

During a long period, there seems to have been no limit set to the area of soil to which a single individual might thus secure a certificate, this merely depending upon the number of persons whom he was able to bring into the country. During the four years preceding 1623, forty-four grants of land were made by the Company to patentees, each of whom had engaged to transport at least one hundred persons at his own expense to the Colony. This would signify that each of these patentees obtained a holding of five thousand acres. The plantations acquired under the operation of the law as to head rights were at this time comparatively small as a rule. An examination of the census taken of the landowners of the Colony in 1626, reveals that the size of a great majority of the